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Have a cozy weekend.

What are your plans for the weekend? We're going to our friends' annual fall party (complete with mulled cider) and also taking Toby to visit our neighborhood firetrucks. For New Yorkers, the Renegade holiday market looks great. (Can you believe the holidays kick off next week?!) Hope you have a wonderful weekend, and here are a few fun posts from around the web...

And a little note: I have more sponsored posts than usual this holiday season because of some inadvertent overbooking (read more here about my blog and career, if you'd like), so I truly apologize for any overload and thank you for hanging in there. I'm still getting the hang of all this! The good news is, I like the brands I'm working with and am glad to recommend them. Thank you again for supporting the sponsors who make my blog possible.

Creme Brulee cheesecake??!!! Ahhh!! I have to check that out! Have fun at the party!! I wish Brooklyn wasn't so far from Rockland County I would totally go to the renegade fair!! =) I wish I had sound at work...I'll listen to your lil video later!

Loved your links, as usual! I especially love the animal prints - so cute. Not sure if you're getting negative feedback about the sponsorships, but don't let it get you down. I think you do it in a good way, and like you said, it's a process to find what's right for you.

Joanna! Are the jeans you shared here the ones you were wearing last weekend at the bake sale? Those were so great and I would love to know where they're from:)Also, I LOVE that you included Lena Dunham taking off her heels, she is such a breath of fresh air! Have a fun weekend, xo

I did notice you had a lot more sponsored posts than usual lately! I don't mind though, it's sort of handy having some gift ideas with Christmas coming up and I can always find something stylish and chic on your blog Jo. :)

We support you, Joanna! I always love all your posts sponsored or not, and love your product picks. These blogs take some much work and you really deserve the credit! That video is adorable, you make me so excited to be a mom :).

Love your blog, sponsored posts or not, keep'em coming. Regarding the Swedish (pre)school. No, not too far. What are people so afraid of? I can assure everyone afraid of the kids becoming "genderless" or brainwashed (yes, those are some of the arguments I've heard), that the rest of society is hard at work teaching boys and girls their assigned roles in life. Unfortunately.

I think it's beautiful that they're erasing gender stereotypes. I think what's important to remember is that by not using gendered pronouns they're not saying gender is bad. They're saying that when people use those pronouns it asks as a clue to how to treat that individual based on narrow concepts on gender. I think it's so wonderful that they were self-aware enough to tape themselves to see their own prejudice. I applaud you Sweden!

LOL, I do like those jeans . About the line at the grocery store .. it gets my husband crazy when he sees people ( women) waiting until they are at the register to get their wallet out and start looking for their money. Like they are surprised that they have to pay .

Someone sent us the restaurant review a couple of days ago, how great was that ? how many times have you wanted to say those things ?

Toby is precious! And the pencil skirt for bike riders is genius - I may have to invest in one myself. No worries about the sponsored posts - you always pick great partnerships!-Tascha http://taschatakesmanhattan.blogspot.com/

I very much agree and do not think they are going too far. I would argue the widely accepted differences in the way we treat people based on their sex or gender (cited in the preshool's observations of typical interactions between adults and children) are more damaging.

I love this as always and i will be visiting the market!. I also see of what sweden is trying to do. i mean somethings i do already to kids and dont not put it as masculine or part of feminism . I also love the skirt i would wear it to work then be able to rent a bike by my job and ride it to the station. and what a nice video and every link also. oh btw what a sweet voice you have!!!! now i put the voice with your face and toby punctuation is very good.

I also did not see how the preschool was going to far... I thought it was a very touching article and I'm glad you shared it with such a wide audience. I think it's important for us to stretch our minds to new ideas, especially ideas that can help us raise children to be well adjusted, comfortable in their own skin adults! Thanks for sharing.

uh, I'm in full support of blurring gender lines. I wish more people were. It's rather absurd to take the stance that it is simply to make boys into girls. Is promoting equality taking it "a little too far"?

Elegant Farmer? Holla! That's my brother's birthday cake every year. My family lives in Milwaukee and they're sold at our local gourmet grocery. So good, and they're SO tall! They puff up and get all crusty and delicious.

I love your weekend posts. No, i dont think the swedish model goes too far. Why? Any study of US child developmet shows we go too far the other way. Girls are taught to cry when angjry and boys to get angry instead of cry. I live in utah where people protested a book about a gay couple being in a school library so it was taken out yet you see polygamists every day out shopping and herding their wives and children places. I accept them, they should accept my single parenthood and know we both think we are doing the best for our child(ren). Id much prefer we teach tolerance, see where we are failing our children and correct that.

I love your weekend posts. No, i dont think the swedish model goes too far. Why? Any study of US child developmet shows we go too far the other way. Girls are taught to cry when angjry and boys to get angry instead of cry. I live in utah where people protested a book about a gay couple being in a school library so it was taken out yet you see polygamists every day out shopping and herding their wives and children places. I accept them, they should accept my single parenthood and know we both think we are doing the best for our child(ren). Id much prefer we teach tolerance, see where we are failing our children and correct that.

Know what´s funny? I just watched your vimeo videos for the first time (the one above and the good night toby one) and I always imagined your vocal tone to appear much "darker" for a female voice, than it is and I imagined Alex´voice to be an bit "higher" for a male voice.....

I come from Finland, that is next to Sweden. In Finnish language we don't use separate pronouns for males or females at all, those don't exist in the language. That works absolutely fine, and still we are not totally genderless here.

In the past, people used to use a separate word for a child whose mother was not married. Or for a couple that was not married but still lived together. Those words would implicitly have some moral judgement in them - and I am sort of glad people don't use those words any more. I somehow think that some structures in language can promote structures in the actual society and vice versa. Also such structures that we don't believe in any more. At least words can direct our attention sometimes to something that is absolutely unnecessary.

Typically, when a Finnish person is speaking English or something else, it is very common that we use he instead of she - it does not mean we don't know the gender of the person we talk about - we just use the first word at hand. So I don't know what is the effect of separate pronouns.

I think the Swedish model is ok - I think it would be too far if they would prevent the girls to do "girlish things" or the boys from boyish. I think it was an important notion in this article, that girls were given more comfort when they cried. I also know about studies on elementary schools that have concluded that girls are expected to behave better - then if a girl is misbehaving, she's considered "evil", whereas a misbehaving boy is "normal". Of course such models affect what kind of adults each girl and boy turn out to be.

I'm also so glad you shared the link to the article about the Swedish model. I am Swedish (we live in Stockholm) and one of the things I am most proud of is the way we endeavor to free children of gender-based norms here. We have a long way to go but I think there is a lot to learn from the pre-school mentioned.

I recently did an interview about what it's like to raise small children here in Sweden - the good and the bad: http://minipiccolini.com/2012/06/interview/

Those NY Calendars are beautiful, and it is great that they are giving 30% of proceeds to Hurricane Sandy Relief. Another great way to get something beautiful and give to Sandy Relief is by buying a poster from Print Aid NYC (printaidnyc.com)--100% of proceeds to Sandy Relief Efforts!

As a mother of 3 and my youngest only being 7 weeks old we are doing stuff around the house but I am also busy baking our daily bread, making home made yogurt and I'm finishing a quilt that has just needed the binding done for over a year now.

I was wondering if you might talk about potty training on a motherhood Monday post in the future? I figured around Toby's age is when parents start thinking about it, so I figured if you are doing any research you could share with us!

My son is turning 2 in Decemember and I have done some research myself and have actually tried a method already to end in complete failure. I would be happy to share my research as well. :)

I love ur ads entries too and in fact... I am addicted to reading them because they open up another world for me... things that I have never known (like the recent diaper bag from So Young!) nor seen. I am from Singapore and just tried to search for that from Australia only to realise they are not in stock till Christmas so see... I would never know there is such a great bag if you din share them on ur blog! :)

I love ur ads entries too and in fact... I am addicted to reading them because they open up another world for me... things that I have never known (like the recent diaper bag from So Young!) nor seen. I am from Singapore and just tried to search for that from Australia only to realise they are not in stock till Christmas so see... I would never know there is such a great bag if you din share them on ur blog! :)

thank you so much for your lovely notes! judy, that is SO funny that you wrote that because we JUST put toby on his little plastic potty for the first time this morning. he was wearing his diapers and pjs, but still, it felt like a first step:) we were like, oh my goodness, you're such a big boy, you look like uncle nick. haha. i'm sure uncle nick would love that. :) anyway, i'd love to do a post to hear other parents' advice and get a discussion going. thanks for the idea!